Devils discussion (news, notes and speculation) - part II

[TrufleShufle]

Wild that Dougie is out for a year and the team struggles. He comes back; they're a much better overall team, and now people are calling for him to be traded. Yikes

Dougie makes the team better and provides important Veteran Leadership.

Same could be said for Tatar.

 

[MasterofGrond]

Douglas is the only thing we talk about these days because the team is pretty good

 

[Devils731]

We haven’t even discussed the entertainment value Hamilton gives us as Twitter admin.

 

[Bleedred]

Wild that Dougie is out for a year and the team struggles. He comes back; they're a much better overall team, and now people are calling for him to be traded. Yikes

Dougie makes the team better and provides important Veteran Leadership.

I think mostly people just want him gone after this year for cap reasons.

I definitely think getting rid of Palat should be of much more importance. And worry about clearing out Dougie probably in the 2026 offseason,

 

[dgibb10]

Same could be said for Tatar.

Are we going to pretend Tatar wasn't excellent in 22-23?

 

[TrufleShufle]

Are we going to pretend Tatar wasn't excellent in 22-23?

Are we going to pretend Tatar doesn't fit the description of what he just said and it's funny to point out because we all know it's a joke? You got enough people you are currently trying to put down, don't go searching for more.

 

[Saugus]

We haven’t even discussed the entertainment value Hamilton gives us as Twitter admin.

The intangibles these days are getting really intangible.

Imagine trying to explain to Lou circa 1995 (or really even Lou now), “we can’t get rid of that guy, fans on social media like him too much”.

 

[None Shall Pass]

The intangibles these days are getting really intangible.

Imagine trying to explain to Lou circa 1995 (or really even Lou now), “we can’t get rid of that guy, fans on social media like him too much”.

Lou's first social media post was a cave painting that roughly translates to "Cut bear put fire less sick"

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Again, my entire argument on Hamilton is not to say he sucks. He does not suck.

The entire point is that he makes a ton of money and has a skillset that could theoretically be replaced, plus we have a couple of young D prospects that are or will be knocking on the door.

I don't see a world where we can pay Luke and Dougie ~$17-18 million combined.

 

[Andre Palot]

Tampa Bay has no reason to bring back Palat lol



They need a top 6 winger lmao, Palat on the third line with Haula and whoever the winger is a much more complete team.

Palat is a top six winger in the same way Kraft Mac and cheese is considered food.

 

[None Shall Pass]

Anyway, Bratt is on a 102 (rounding up the decimal) point pace, and Jack is at a 97 point pace while learning how to take faceoffs and play defense after a slow start.

Third guy on that line is reaaaalllly low on my list of priorities

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[britdevil]

Lou's first social media post was a cave painting that roughly translates to "Cut bear put fire less sick"

Lou mediated Ea-nāṣir's complaint to Ur about bad copper.

Stan Fischler wrote a piece about it in the Bedrock Times.

 

[Maine Fan]

And a Happy Holiday to you. Hope you are getting along well. Your posts are always positive and for the negative world we now live in they are uplifting.

Thank you very much for the nice thoughts about me. I am not sure I have earned them. Happy Holidays to you and yours

 

[devilsblood]

Just looking at some team stats on NHL edge.

We are currently below the 50th percentile in terms of bursts over 20 mph. Even our top skating speed is "only" 64th percentile. But we are in the 99th percentile in terms of distance skated. Not sure how that is squared.

We are also below 50th percentile in terms of ES offensive zone time, which I imagine is due in part to protecting leads.

Anyways, despite the success, I am a little wary of our lack of speed throughout the lineup. Not saying we need to add speed, but If we were to add players, I would prefer they can skate. We see how much an effect our fast fwds have in late game defensive situation. They can't all be fast little guys, but sprinkling them in has clear disruptive effect on opposing teams. Bringing in another slow guy, such as Kakko, I think may be swinging that pendulum too far the other way.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Just looking at some team stats on NHL edge.

We are currently below the 50th percentile in terms of bursts over 20 mph. Even our top skating speed is "only" 64th percentile. But we are in the 99th percentile in terms of distance skated. Not sure how that is squared.

We are also below 50th percentile in terms of ES offensive zone time, which I imagine is due in part to protecting leads.

Anyways, despite the success, I am a little wary of our lack of speed throughout the lineup. Not saying we need to add speed, but If we were to add players, I would prefer they can skate. We see how much an effect our fast fwds have in late game defensive situation. They can't all be fast little guys, but sprinkling them in has clear disruptive effect on opposing teams. Bringing in another slow guy, such as Kakko, I think may be swinging that pendulum too far the other way.

Will the prophecy finally be fulfilled?

 

[TheBeerNerd]

Just looking at some team stats on NHL edge.

We are currently below the 50th percentile in terms of bursts over 20 mph. Even our top skating speed is "only" 64th percentile. But we are in the 99th percentile in terms of distance skated. Not sure how that is squared.

We are also below 50th percentile in terms of ES offensive zone time, which I imagine is due in part to protecting leads.

Anyways, despite the success, I am a little wary of our lack of speed throughout the lineup. Not saying we need to add speed, but If we were to add players, I would prefer they can skate. We see how much an effect our fast fwds have in late game defensive situation. They can't all be fast little guys, but sprinkling them in has clear disruptive effect on opposing teams. Bringing in another slow guy, such as Kakko, I think may be swinging that pendulum too far the other way.

The bottom six could definitely use someone who has both speed and an edge to their game.

 

[devilsblood]

View attachment 947484

Will the prophecy finally be fulfilled?

I've always kind of liked Anderson. Obviously get's paid too much, and he's probably played too high up the lineup too often throughout his career, but he is a big fast, tough guy who can score goals from your bottom 6.


Surprised he still plays with that much pace to his game.

 

[devilsblood]

How fitting is it that Noesen broke our mini slump on the PP?

The return of Ham's and Jack being healthy are obviously big keys, and I guess we have to give some love to the PP coach, but Noesen playing like an elite net front presence is the biggest factor to our PP success this season imo. Not only does he get a ton of shots, and not only does he bury a lot of goals, I think he has made some very savy passes out of that spot.

Minimum 50 minutes of PP time, Noesen is tied for 4th in the league in terms of SOG rate. 7th in terms of goal rate. 3rd in iSCF rate. 2nd in iHDCF rate.

 

[Triumph]

Just looking at some team stats on NHL edge.

We are currently below the 50th percentile in terms of bursts over 20 mph. Even our top skating speed is "only" 64th percentile. But we are in the 99th percentile in terms of distance skated. Not sure how that is squared.

We are also below 50th percentile in terms of ES offensive zone time, which I imagine is due in part to protecting leads.

Anyways, despite the success, I am a little wary of our lack of speed throughout the lineup. Not saying we need to add speed, but If we were to add players, I would prefer they can skate. We see how much an effect our fast fwds have in late game defensive situation. They can't all be fast little guys, but sprinkling them in has clear disruptive effect on opposing teams. Bringing in another slow guy, such as Kakko, I think may be swinging that pendulum too far the other way.

Bursts over 20 mph are bad on defense because they imply that someone is out of position - if your team is in position, nobody on your team should be skating that fast. Even on offense, they're probably relatively rare - maybe during big rush chances/breakaway chances for.

I'm not sure how the Devils are 99th percentile in distance skated, obviously they talk on the broadcasts a lot about how Jack Hughes is the league leader in distance skated and he shows up everywhere on the ice, but no one else on the team really plays like that.

 

[devilsblood]

Bursts over 20 mph are bad on defense because they imply that someone is out of position - if your team is in position, nobody on your team should be skating that fast. Even on offense, they're probably relatively rare - maybe during big rush chances/breakaway chances for.

I'm not sure how the Devils are 99th percentile in distance skated, obviously they talk on the broadcasts a lot about how Jack Hughes is the league leader in distance skated and he shows up everywhere on the ice, but no one else on the team really plays like that.

Yet Carolina is 87th percentile. 99th in top skating speed and offensive zone time.

Conversely they are below 50th in distance.

Winnipeg looks to be pretty fast.

Washington pretty slow.

Edit: Need to look deeper here as I see Colorado is not fast in terms of top speed, but are 99th percentile in terms of all the different burst brackets.

 

[devilsblood]

Aight so a little deeper look at the Devils.

64th percentil in terms of top speed
77th in terms of 22+ bursts
below 50th in terms of 20-22 mph
74th in terms of 18-20.

That last bracket makes me think of Noesen(and I will look this up next to see if this verifies) in that he is not fast, but because of his high energy, he has some quickness. Bastian is similar (though a little different).

But an interesting mix of good high end speed, then a gap, and then what I think is slower but good effort guys.

Edit: Nope Noesen is slow even in terms of 18-20 bursts......but I bet if there were a 16-20 bursts.

Also, these are raw numbers, so given Hughes is such a minutes eater, he'll skew stats. Fast guys further down the lineup not so much. Meier and Mercer play a lot of minutes and are high distance guys.

 

[devilsblood]

Mercer is not a top end speed guy, but really high ranks in terms of all the burst categories. He's really playing with pace.

Think he is a guy who Fitz was thinking about when he said this offseason "guys need to hit the weight room" think his game could really improve by getting bigger and stronger.

 

[Camille the Eel]

They can't all be fast little guys, but sprinkling them in has clear disruptive effect on opposing teams.

Get fast big guys instead.

 

[Hisch13r]

What a BRILLIANT idea it’d be to let this guy walk so we can keep the 3rd pair PP specialist instead!!!